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Yosemite Battles Camping Reservation Scalpers

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK (CBS/AP) --Yosemite National Park has a pest problem: ticket scalpers who are selling the limited camping reservations at exorbitant prices.

Spokesman Scott Gediman said that park officials are becoming more aggressive as they try to curb scalpers.

The nation's third-most visited park has only 900 reserved campsites available at any given time. They go for $20 a night but scalpers advertising on Craigslist are offering them for $100 or more—sometimes for hundreds of dollars.

They're also selling permits to climb Half Dome, which the park essentially issues for free.

Gediman said it appears that some scalpers may have devised ways of jumping the reservation queue, possibly through automated computer programs that can instantly snag cancellations.

(Copyright 2011 by CBSSan Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services may have contributed to this report.)

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